KOBE -- This city on Monday morning marked the 10th anniversary of the January 1995 earthquake that resulted in the loss of 6,433 lives, with ceremonies paying tribute to reconstruction efforts and offering condolences and promises of further assistance to survivors of national and international disasters.
But with concerns that many elderly survivors of the Great Hanshin Earthquake living alone are still in need of care, as well as a local economy that continues to stagnate, few in Kobe were in a mood to say their city has recovered completely.
The ceremonies officially began at 5.46 a.m., the exact time the quake hit Jan. 17, 1995, with a candlelight vigil in central Kobe.
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